Obviously, it's not a great time for graduates
to be looking for jobs at the moment.
And many of my students are coming in asking advice.
And the first thing I say to them is be creative.
But they look at me with sort of a blank sort of stare,
what's creativity got to do with getting jobs?
So I tell them a story.
I tell them a story actually about me in 1983.
There was a big recession in Australia at the time,
not unlike the US,
and very few of the graduates were finding jobs.
But I was a marketing major, and so I said to myself,
well if I can't market myself,
how can I market anything else?
And so what was everyone else doing?
They were reading the newspaper looking for jobs,
they were looking at the college notice boards
looking for jobs. So I said,
well why couldn't I do the reverse?
Why couldn't I put an ad about myself into a newspaper
or magazine?
So where did I want to work?
I wanted a marketing job.
So what do marketers read?
There's this magazine called "Marketing World",
so I called them up and I said, "I have no money,
I'm a student, but I'd like to put an ad in your magazine."
And they liked the idea.
So they said, "Okay, $500,
and if you can insert 10,000 of these publications,
we'll ship it out for you."
So I produced this full-page flyer,
said "Have Degree, Will Travel."
It said, "I am good on the end of a broom,
I make a great cup of coffee
and I learned to touch type in under eight hours.
But seriously, I have a marketing degree,
here's my phone number, give me a call."
So the magazine wanted to get some press
for their monthly addition, and so they sent it
to the newspapers.
And so there, this big yellow flyer fell on the lap
of a journalist who called me up and said,
"Can I come and interview you about your job search?"
So he came around and he took a photo of me
with a cup of coffee and over a typewriter,
and put an ad about six by nine in the newspaper.
Well, then it came out, and then other newspapers
around Australia published it.
And the radio stations called up and said,
"We'd like to interview you."
So within two weeks, I had 40 job offers.
I was incredibly lucky.
I was lucky enough that actually I could help
others in my class also get jobs.
Now, it doesn't always work out that way,
but I think creatively, creativity does pay off.
I did my application to MBA school as a cookbook,
where each chapter was actually a recipe towards it.
So creativity pays off.
The second tip I'm suggesting to my students
is to open their aperture to the jobs they're looking for.
A lot of graduates come out with a very specific niche
of the job they're looking for.
Well, now, you should have four of five of those
so that you can play them off.
You need to look at variety.
Now, the nice thing about that
is I found, actually, that senior leaders are best
when they've had a great deal of variety.
So start with something that may not be perfect,
and then later on, maybe you can jump into that
and you'll have experiences under your belt.
The third suggestion is sort of an obvious one,
which is go where the jobs are.
It's like the old expression,
"Why do people rob banks?
"Well, that's where the money is."
Go to the jobs, the companies where the jobs
are likely to be.
Look, there's technology, there's retail,
there's all the service delivery going on at the moment.
You know, you can do a non-technical job in there.
Go after those.
My fourth and final content point
is the importance of tenacity.
I have an expression that EQ, emotional intelligence,
is more important than IQ.
But tenacity is more important than both of those combined.
This is a hustle, you've just gotta keep going
until you drop.
The last message I give in my actual classes
is I show a slide.
And that slide is simply "Be kind."
I think in these days when things are tough,
being kind helps all.
The beauty of being kind is that actually
you will get something in return.
So good luck on this journey.
All the best.